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Hi all, when I first bought ViaCAD, I couldn't stretch myself to buy Shark (nearly $2000) so invested in ViaCAD v10 and bought the add-on (power pack pro). I keep looking out for sales and things to upgrade to Shark, mainly for the added features. So this morning I'm checking round again, and come across this link.

So if I was a new customer I get some special price, not bad at all, brings it under £1000 for me in the UK. But if I try and upgrade on the link below, adding in my serial numbers I get some what of a small discount off the retail price?

What I'm seeing here is there's no benefit from being an existing customer? The Punchcad link doesn't include power pack either, that would be more on top. I really want to upgrade to Shark, but if I've already pumped in the cash for ViaCAD V10 Pro, how come I now need to pump in twice as much again to get the shark upgrade?

Since we are on the subject of licenses, and UGMENTALCASE I do not want to hijack your thread so let me know if you want me to delete this. In a few words to all, why is Power Pack worth the expense? What does it provide that has real, down in the trenches, value? I have purchased Shark Pro and it was not inexpensive. But having to add functionality that, in my mind, should be in the higher level code to begin with, seems a bit of a stretch. In other words, I have no issue spending money on specific functionality such as a wire harness module, Class A body surfacing module or kinematics module. But to get the ability to remove slivers from solid/surface geometry seems like a band-aid to incomplete code.

That's fine and I've had similar thoughts, it would be great, as I've previously mentioned to be able to 'create your own' with purchased add ons to suit whoever uses it. I mentioned this when talking about defaults the other day in another post, personalise them to suit needs.

It's like the power pack, I bought to work with converting mesh to nurbs, I've since found a stand alone program which does the same thing, and works really well, no spinning wheels unless you ask it to do something daft!

I don't use wood work, I don't use the building element, but I would like gd & t in drafting. The ability to customise would be great!

You can work around some of the power pack tools, which I found before I bought it, like line normal to surface, you can achieve the same with a point and a work plane.

I must admit I wasn't best pleased when I saw the difference in price on the links. How is one far far cheaper than the other? Who has been unfortunate enough to purchase the more expensive version?

Existing customers are the ones on here, ironing out issues. There are more and more bugs popping up each week, another one has been posted about the area fill, the video made my morning it was so funny, but then in ViaCAD it's fine? Stability! It's great that things are being fixed, and I replied to Tim saying a similar thing, but should there be this many problems?

Since we are on the subject of licenses, and UGMENTALCASE I do not want to hijack your thread so let me know if you want me to delete this. In a few words to all, why is Power Pack worth the expense? What does it provide that has real, down in the trenches, value? I have purchased Shark Pro and it was not inexpensive. But having to add functionality that, in my mind, should be in the higher level code to begin with, seems a bit of a stretch. In other words, I have no issue spending money on specific functionality such as a wire harness module, Class A body surfacing module or kinematics module. But to get the ability to remove slivers from solid/surface geometry seems like a band-aid to incomplete code.

It seems to me that there are a number of people posting lately that want Shark and ViaCAD to be something with all the functionality of SolidWorks, a program that costs something like four times as much as Shark. For me, and I suspect for most of the target customers what is needed is a easy to learn and accessible CAD system that will produce good enough drawings for their particular needs. Approaching Shark or ViaCAD with a CAD professional's mind set seem somehow to miss the point of these programs.

To be fair it's sold as 'CAD for professionals' or 'professional CAD'. I like the program, but as others have stated chance to personalise would be great, and chance to model without glitches would be great. This sort of thinking doesn't come from using other CAD programs.....

I have found, like others, you need to be super careful, as sometimes there is NO way back!I like the software, and honestly using Catia and NX in my day job it's hard not to compare, but once you get past that and see it as it's own software, then you can approach it differently.

I personally need more full time on it, to be able to get fully stuck in, but it's hard when you come across errors at most corners. Like I've said previously BOMs not working, fundamental thing of a drawing? I think so. It works on Tim's video on the website, now all of a sudden it doesn't? Seems strange that as the program develops and goes up in builds, others things break? How?

No one is here to cause arguments, they just want things fixing. It's like buying a car. If you bought it and drove it away, stuck the indicator on and the wipers started, you'd want to know why? I said this to Tim on my reply, it's great things are being fixed, and it only helps the Punch! Community, but I've seen posts that Jolyon has made years ago, and there's tumbleweeds floating past them.

I second UGMENTALCASE's statement. "CAD for professionals" implies a robust core set of utilities that are above novice or "everyday" use. It's not that we are expecting VC/Shark to be like anything else specifically. We may describe functionality that is contained in the codes we use each day at our full time jobs as a way of simply siting a known example. But I do not see anyone actually expecting Shark to "be" Creo, Catia or NX. If anything, I guess I am the one that has stated most specifically comparisons to Creo, Catia and SolidWorks as I use those now. If that is the message I have perpetuated and/or created, it was not my intention. I accept that responsibility.

What I believe I read mostly are the frustration rants regarding buggy and/or long standing issues with VC/Shark. The minimum functionality CAD bar height has risen to a very content rich level over thirty years that most users somewhat "expect" to be there. So, when one reads "New and improved Draw Views and BOM Creation" and sees a meshed vehicle form on the site, it implies a level of functionality and usability to the "World Brain" of today. But mostly, we expect what is there to be robust and not subject to buggy behavior for years. We that have used CAD for decades know full well that each code has its likes, dislikes and quirks. And we know there are always workarounds to these issues. But when the workarounds fall down, then it makes for a long and frustrating day.

I fully concede I am a Noob on Shark and try to steal away as much time as I can after work to get better at its way of doing business. I know next to nothing on the code as I have been at it for a little over a month. I need to create a thousand models before my opinion holds any weight. But in just the short time I have been using it, I see some cracks that others have seconded. I try to read as many old posts on the forum as I can as well from the long time users. I have noticed a older posts siting issues that seem to remain today. I am really pulling for Shark to be robust. Users on the front lines can do that by sighting issues and sharing them. I hope the Dev Team listens and can effect change.

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